HAPPINESS IN
MARRIAGE
SELECTED TEACHINGS
Marriage Brings Happiness and Joy
President David O. McKay
“In the teachings of the Church of Christ, the family
assumes supreme importance in the development of
the individual and of society. ‘Happy and thrice
happy are they who enjoy an uninterrupted union
and whose love, unbroken by any complaints, shall
not dissolve until the last day.’ It will not dissolve
when a worthy couple is sealed by the authority of
the Holy Priesthood throughout all eternity. The
marriage ceremony when thus sealed produces
happiness and joy unsurpassed by any other
experience in the world” (in Conference Report,
Apr. 1966, 108).
“‘How, then,’ you ask, ‘may you tell whether or not
there is any consanguinity [feelings of affection], that
something which will make you at least congenial
in each other’s company?’ ‘Is there,’ you ask, ‘some
guide?’ Though love is not always a true guide,...
yet certainly there is no happiness without love”
(Gospel Ideals,459).
President Spencer W. Kimball
“Honorable, happy, and successful marriage is surely
the principal goal of every normal person. Marriage
is perhaps the most vital of all the decisions and
has the most far-reaching effects, for it has to do
not only with immediate happiness, but also with
eternal joys....
“... Marriage can be more an exultant ecstasy than
the human mind can conceive. This is within the
reach of every couple, every person” (“Oneness in
Marriage,” Ensign,Mar. 1977, 3–4).President Ezra Taft Benson
“As our family is our greatest source of joy in this
life, so it may well be in the eternity” (in Conference
Report, Apr. 1979, 48; or Ensign,May 1979, 33–34).President Boyd K. Packer
“The ultimate purpose of all we teach is to unite
parents and children in faith in the Lord Jesus Christ,
that they are happy at home, sealed in an eternal
marriage, linked to their generations, and assured of
exaltation in the presence of our Heavenly Father”
(in Conference Report, Apr. 1995, 8; or Ensign,May
1995, 8).Elder Boyd K. Packer
“Some marriages do bend, and some will break, but
we must not, because of this, lose faith in marriage
nor become afraid of it.
“Broken marriages are not typical.
“Remember that trouble attracts attention! We
travel the highway with thousands of cars moving
in either direction without paying much attention
to any of them. But should an accident occur, we
notice immediately.
“If it happens again, we get the false impression
that no one can go safely down the road.
“One accident may make the front page, while a
hundred million cars that safely pass are not regarded
as worth mentioning.
“Writers think that a happy, stable marriage does
not have the dramatic appeal, the conflict worth
featuring in a book or a play or a film. Therefore,
we constantly hear about the ruined ones and we
lose our perspective.
“I believe in marriage. I believe it to be the ideal
pattern for human living. I know it to be ordained
of God. The restraints relating to it were designed to
protect our happiness.
“I do not know of any better time in all of the history
of the world for a young couple who are of age and
prepared and who are in love to think of marriage.
There is no better time because it is yourtime.
“I know that these are very troubled times. Troubles
like we have now are very hard on marriages.Marriage can be more an exultant
ecstasy than the human mind can
conceive. This is within the reach
of every couple, every person.
—President Spencer W. Kimball133